Read Between the Lines
by lone2phero
Summary: War is a deadly mistress and Kara knows this but there's no way to avoid war. The village is in a state of preparing but at the same time is calm, too much and some are taking advantage of this calm to spend time with people they love. Kara doesn't know but someone is trying to get closer to her before the real fighting begins. (MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS)
1. Chapter 1

Heat swelled within the forest, causing the flowers, ranging from red to yellow, to follow the sun's ray and soaking up the warmth. Kara felt a calmness run over her, as she walked up to a dark green tree, and sat down, leaning back against the trunk. Stress was killing her, inside out, that she almost felt nervous to relax and expected someone to jump out and attack her. She sighed deeply, keeping up her guard, thinking back to her students. Mika, Dan, and Yosuke were part of the reason why she was stress. Ever since she came back from her mission, the three had be nagging her about training. Sometimes she wished that they were still ten years old, back when they followed orders and didn't bother her as much. Then again...times have changed and so did they, heck even she's changed. She was once a person who cared only about herself but once she became a shinobi, she's been caring more about the people around her, especially her students.

"Good hiding place you got here."  
Kara looked up, a jot of fear in her chest, and saw Kakashi, kneeling in the tree above her. She smiled weakly and nodded, relived that it was only him.  
"Students are starting to get annoying." She stated just as Kakashi jumped down from the tree and sat next to her.  
"Really giving you a hard time, huh."  
"Yeah, their getting a bit feisty since they haven't been on a mission for awhile." She said with a sigh  
"I'm sure, you'll find something for them to do in the mean time."  
Kara rolled her eyes and leaned back against the tree, feeling tension in her shoulder. It's been a day, since her last mission and while her students were on their, work related breaks, she was running between villages. First, it was from the Leaf to the Sand village, delivering secret messages (because the birds were out of service). Then it was traveling to the Stone Village and recently, it was to the Mist Village and that one wasn't the most easiest.  
"So, I got some news about something." Kakashi said, rubbing the back of his neck.  
"What?"  
"Guy decided it was best if we throw you a surprise party."  
"A surprise party?" Kara repeated, not sure how she felt about a party.  
"Yeah, thought it was best to give you a party before we organize the war."

The Fourth Great Ninja War was on the rise. So far, nothing has happened but knowing how things go, something bad was bound to happen. The village was destroyed and even still danger was still near. Really it was a big mess that required secure steps and there wasn't room to mess up, not when there's so much at stake.  
"He really doesn't have to do that." Kara said  
Kakashi sighed "You know Guy, he's not going to crush down the idea. So you might as well go along with it."  
"Fine but you know I'm not a fan of parties." Kara stated and stood up, dusting off her pants  
"Yeah, I know. That's why I told him not to do it" He said, getting up along with her. "But if you ask me, it's a good idea."  
"I guess but right now?"  
"Better now than never." Kakashi stated  
Kara bit her lower lip slightly, thinking. There wasn't much that they were doing right now, they were waiting for orders from the Hokage, who would be Kakashi and he wasn't going to be official until two days from now.  
"Better now than." She said "Just tell Guy not to go all out."  
"Sure. Good luck with those three." He said before leaving her alone with a puff of white smoke.

Kara sighed to herself, parties really weren't her thing. She saw no need for them and she couldn't even remember the last time she had a birthday party. The timing didn't feel right to her but Kakashi said it was. War was coming and it's probably wasn't the best idea to waste time on her. Right now, she just wanted to mentally prepare herself because going to war wasn't something she expected to experience again.


	2. Chapter 2

Kicking up dust, Dan sighed deeply to himself and looked around the training field. It was a nice, cloudy day, sometimes the sun would come out and disappear behind the gray fluff but it was better weather then weeks prior. Dan flopped down onto the grass, near a strong tree, and sat between Mika and Yosuke, sighing loudly.  
"Where is she?" Dan questioned.  
"She probably got caught up in something." Mika said running her fingers throw her fizzy grey hair.  
"Caught with her boyfriend." Yosuke commented  
"Stop it. You know how busy she is." Mika stated, rising her brow at Yosuke's comment.  
"That's why she should be here, so that we could help her." Dan stated and leaning up against the tree.  
"By training?" Mika asked  
"Fighting could take a lot of stress off." Yosuke added.  
Kara panted slightly, running along the dirt trail that lead to the training ground and stopped when she grew closer. Wiping sweat from her forehead, she looked around as she enter and saw her three students huddled close together near the fence, under a shady tree. There was no wind, some clouds; it was a great day to train.  
"Kara sensei, glad you're here. So what can we start with?" Dan asked happily, his unkempt black hair falling into his brown eyes.  
"You guys didn't start with warm-ups?"  
"You just told us to meet here." Dan said  
"Told you guys we should have started." Yosuke said, brushing Dan's hair out of his face  
Dan blushed lightly and pushed Yosuke's hand away "She didn't say anything about warm-ups."  
Kara sighed and looked at Mika. "Did you at least bring the weapons?"  
Mika nodded "My father said, whichever we pick, we can keep. So I just brought them all." She pointed over to five scrolls that laid on the ground near the trunk of the tree.  
"More is more." Kara sighed with a soft smile; clearly, her team was out-of-shape (by ninja standards) and was starting to get weak in endurance, which wasn't good.  
"Cool-I'll take the swords" Dan said  
"No." Kara mumbled, in her best mommy voice. "Right now, you guys run five minutes laps."  
"But, we did that yesterday." Yosuke said, rubbing his sore thighs  
"Just go...it'll strengthen your endurance." Kara stated and pointed to the track, that laid at the end of the large field.  
She watched as the three slowly walked to the starting point and ready themselves for her signal. She motions her hand downward, letting them know to start and they ran, after she started her timer. Sitting up against the tree, she took Mika's strolls into her hand and looked down at the labels: Swords, tools, and bombs.  
There was a tight feeling in her stomach when she read the labels, it made her feel scared that kids, no older than fourteen, knew a lot about weapons. Sometimes she wished that there wasn't such a thing as shinobis, maybe then there wouldn't be so much death.  
Kara pushed the thought away and looked up at her students, remembering their reason for wanting to ninjas. A reason, so simple as life. It was simply because they wanted to protect people who couldn't help themselves. In fact, that was the reason mostly everyone in the village became a shinobi and fighting a war was just a side deal. Not a very good deal but a deal that lead to more helping.

A loud beeping was heard and Kara looked down at the timer that sat beside and turned it off. Her students stop in their tracks, out of breath slightly and from the looks of it, the three were having a race to see who could run the most laps.  
"Kara sensei, I won." Mika stated as she went back to their meeting point.  
Kara smiled. "Good and here's tonight's dinner." She said, pulling out ten ryos out of her pouch.  
"I would have caught up, if someone didn't bother me." Dan stated, looking over at Yosuke, who looked away, pretending not to notice Dan.  
Kara rolled her eyes playfully "Doesn't matter. The both of you need to do better." She said, pulling back Yosuke's hair "especially you."  
"Are we working with the weapons now?" Mika asked  
Nodding, Kara looked back at Mika give an "okay" look. Mika nodded back slightly and unraveled the strolls, summoning a variety of weapon. Dan eyed the weapons, looking for the biggest sword. Yosuke and Mika stepped away from Dan, not wanting to be within his range and watched him as he was having trouble controlling the sword he chose. Keeping an eye on him, Kara simply watched him and waited for him to make a false move.  
"Which one should I choose?" Yosuke asked, looking through the weapons.  
"You seem more like a trap guy." Mika pointed out  
Sighing; Kara finally took the sword away from Dan and placed it back down on the ground.  
"Face it; you're not that strong to control it." Kara said.  
Dan puckered his lips and mimicked Kara, who only rolled her eyes. "But nothing else looks good."  
"It's not supposed to look good."  
"Sensei, are traps a good thing?" Yosuke asked  
Kara looked over at him and smiled "Sure but I want you to have other things under your belt. You're smart and like to visualize but it's also good to defend yourself, just in case."

There was a short silence that ran though the squad, as they chose a weapon, they believed would best fit them. Occasionally, Dan would pick weapons that were either too heavy for him or slipped right out of his hands and ended up choosing a sharp edge club. At the moment, Kara didn't believe it would suit him but after doing a mock battle with her, she found that he work best with it and had to convince him to take it, even though he said 'it was too simple.'  
Mika had some idea of what she wanted and was open-minded to what she chose. When looking around, she first picked up a pack of shurkin but knew that she couldn't win a battle with just shurikin, so choose twin swords. During her turn at a mock battle, she did good but felt that there was something messing. She had a need to reach for different weapons, which was understandable because her family specialized in weapons.  
Yosuke left room for various weapons, as he wasn't that sure of what he wanted. There was a sword that he tried, that really didn't move with him and then there were brass knuckles that he grew to liking but Kara insisted that he choose another. In the end, he chose a mental chain, which Kara was fine with.  
"Can we have another battle?" Dan asked  
"Alright but this time, I'm going to be a little harder." Kara stated, as the three nodded "This one will be the three of you against me."  
The three nodded and circled around Kara, keeping their eyes solely on her. In a triangle formation, they started running, making sure that Kara stayed in the middle of them. Kara smiled lightly, seeing that they could use that triangle formation and thought back to went they were confused about stepping patterns.  
Dan lead the triangle into a tighter stance and began running towards Kara, with his club in hand. The other two kept running, keeping their eyes on their teacher as Dan swing his club at her. Kara easily dodged, seeing clear openings that she could move into, then Yosuke twirled his chain and swing it around Kara, to trap her but was too slow in the deliverance and missed her, as Kara jumped out of the way. Dan grunted and found himself engulfed in a circle of chains.  
"Get me out!"  
Mika ignore the other too and stopped in her track, running towards Kara. She threw her shurikin and Kara eyes were on the on-coming knives, making Mika believe that she was distracted. Quietly, Mika drew closer and pulled out one of the swords and swung at Kara, who ducked close to the ground and kicked Mika's ankle, making her lose her balance. Mika let out a small gasp and fell on her back, her sword falling a few feet away. While Kara looked at Mika, Yosuke managed to swing his chain around her mid-section a couple of times and trapped her, while Dan came running and hit Kara's hip.  
A puff of white smoke was seen and the three stopped in there track. The smoke quickly disappeared and they saw a log, laid on the ground.  
"Wait...that's not fair!" Dan screamed  
"You let her get away?" Mika accused Yosuke  
"No, maybe if someone didn't fall. We would have got her." Yosuke said, looking around

Kara laughed softly to herself and came out from behind the tree. Sweat was running down her cheek but she wiped it away. "Okay, that's enough."  
"Hn...I could have done better by myself." Dan mumbled  
Kara sighed and walked up to the three. "Then you would have been knocked out. You're a short-distanced fighter, it wouldn't help if your enemy was a long-distance fighter."  
"Why not?" Yosuke asked  
"Because, they would kept moving away from you."  
"So what are we suppose to do?" Dan asked  
"Fight as a team." Mika offered  
Nodding, Kara gave Mika her strolls "You guys already fight a certain way. So it's best if you come up with a plan."  
"Right. So when's our next training?" Dan asked  
Kara thought for a moment. "It might be a while, since I'm leaving soon. Just train every Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays for now."  
"But for how long?" Yosuke looked up at Kara  
"Until I get back."  
"Do you really have to go?" Mika asked  
Kara nodded "Look, I hate leaving but it's something that I can't avoid."  
They all knew why their teacher had to go but none of them would say the word. War was itched into their minds, like walking, but they were almost disbelieving of the word.  
"Fine, we'll do our best and when you get back, we'll be like this impossible team." Dan said, light beaming in his eyes.  
Kara smiled. "Of course you will. Right, I got to go do some other things. Stay out of trouble." She said and patted the boy's backs and ran a protective hand through Mika's hair.


End file.
